MENTION Hakan Sukur to Turkish football fans and their faces will light up.
Revered for his goals and brilliance, he scored 295 times across three spells with Galatasaray.
Better still, he plundered 51 goals for the national team – so think Turkey’s answer to Gary Lineker.
Hakan also held the accolade for netting the fastest ever goal in a World Cup finals – when he scored against South Korea in 2002 after just 11 seconds.
However, despite the adulation in his homeland, if he was to step foot in his own country it’s likely he would would be sent to prison, or worse, face the death penalty.
The former footballer now lives in exile in California in the wealthy area of Palo Alto, on the outskirts of San Francisco.
But don’t be fooled into thinking he works for one of those tech giants in Silicon Valley.
For Hakan now makes ends meet as an Uber driver, as well as a football coach.
He formerly ran a bakery in the area, but was forced to close it down after his identity became an issue.
“I moved to the United States, initially running a cafe in California, but strange people kept coming into the bar,” the 52-year-old told German outlet, Welt am Sonntag.
“Now I drive for Uber and I sell books.
“Nobody seems able to explain what my role in this coup was supposed to be.
“I never did anything illegal, I am not a traitor or a terrorist.”
He used to run a popular bakery called Tuts, where the house specials were dishes like Turkish sausage and eggs, and Greek-style pancakes.
It received rave reviews on rating website Yelp, with comments such as: “Oh my gosh. This is the best place in the Bay Area to eat delicious food with your friends.
“The staff is so kind and friendly.”
But none of the customers mentioned that one of the men behind the cafe is the Turkish legend.
In the 1990s, Hakan was one of the most prolific marksman in European football.
Despite Ill-fated spells overseas in Italy with Torino, Inter Milan, Parma, and in the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers, it was at Galatasaray where the goals continued to flow.
In 2008, Hakan hung up his boots for a different life.
In 2011, he was elected as an Istanbul MP for the Justice Development Party, a conservative political group that has ruled over Turkey since 2002.
The Bull of the Bosphorus was making strides and friends in government.
He aligned himself with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as maintained a friendship with cleric Fethullah Gulen.
In 2013 an alliance between Erdogan and Gulen, who was keen for Turkey to become an Islamic state, was destroyed when a government corruption scandal erupted.
Erdogan blamed Gulen for the disruption, and given Hakan was seen as a disciple of the Gulen movement, it all started to go wrong.
That same year, the government closed all schools run by Gulenists and Hakan resigned from the governing party in protest to run as an independent.
Shortly after, Hakan gave a university speech where he told an audience of bemused students: “I am Albanian, as such I am not a Turk.”
Given the political climate in a country that was aiming to regain its national identity, those comments weren’t well-received.
In 2016, Hakan was charged with insulting President Erdogan on Twitter.
That summer, a trial began in absentia. Hakan claimed it wasn’t his intention to insult Erdogan, but prosecutors disagreed.
In July that year, hell broke loose when a coup, organised by Gulen with the aid of a small fraction of the Turkish Armed Forces, attempted to overthrow Erdogan.
The coup was defeated, but more than 300 people had lost their lives, 120,000 people lost their jobs and 50,000 were arrested.
Anyone who had Gulen links was deemed a terrorist and labelled a member of FETO (Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation).
A warrant was issued for Hakan’s arrest and he was charged with being a member of an armed terrorist group.
The charges carry a hefty jail sentence or the death penalty.
Hakan was given the opportunity to renounce his beliefs and love for the Gulen movement, but passed on the chance.
His father Selmet wasn’t so lucky. The authorities arrested him at a mosque in Adapazar and he was charged with financial coup support.
Somehow, Hakan managed to flee to America, but it was reported his father passed away in prison after battling cancer.
Hakan moved to California, where he built a new life for himself.
He had everything taken from him in Turkey, including his businesses, his houses and bank accounts, as well as his nationality.
The ex-pro now lives in exile, unable to return home.
Sadly, Hakan’s name is so sullied in Turkey that when a commentator working for state-ran broadcaster TRT at the 2022 World Cup mentioned him during a game they were sacked at half-time.
However, he does hold hope for the future of a return to his country.
“It’s my country. I love my people, even though their ideas about me are distorted by controlled media,” he told the New York Times back in 2018.
